Enjoying the cool of early morning New Orleans

I didn't have the steam to post last night, but I think it's worked in my favour, as I sit at a little wrought iron table overlooking the pool on a balmy morning in New Orleans. We awoke early to the sound of rain this morning and decided we'd just have to make the best of it, but it seems the sound of rain is just a quirk of our hotel.

Speaking of the hotel, we really lucked out with this one. We're staying right in the French Quarter at the New Orleans Courtyard Hotel. It's a little character building with incredibly friendly staff, a very nice pool and a bedroom floor that is noticeably unlevel. They also had real creamer for my coffee this morning - none of that powdered death or flavoured stuff in plastic packs. The place has charm and the location can't be beat, so I'm happy.

I wasn't surprised to wake up to what I thought was the sound of rain this morning after the storm we got stuck in yesterday. Just before Baton Rouge we drove into a black, black sky torn by lightening that quickly turned into buckets of rain like I've never seen. Drivers turned on their blinkers, we all slowed to 30 miles/hour, and we began to hope for an exit with a motel. We were able to drive out of it before we found one, however, and I'm glad. We made it to New Orleans by 8 pm - only half an hour behind schedule - and were all settled in, on the hunt for food by 8:30. We only had to walk five blocks to find an amazing little deli where we ordered up two enormous, delicious sandwiches - much more than we needed, as we soon found out - and were delighted to discover that you can buy beer here by the bottle. A mix-and-match six-pack of local brews in hand, and we were on our way home.

Why, you may ask, did we opt to eat in on one of only two nights in this amazing city? Because we drove for ten hours yesterday, that's why. The morning started out with a repeat trip to Izzoz tacos for breakfast. Due to our limited taco time, however, we decided to forgo their large selection of breakfast tacos and go for the real thing: a tempura shrimp torta and two tacos (blackened tilapia and braised beef). Joe followed this up with the most ridiculous donut I've ever seen. When we first saw Gourdough's the day before, we knew it had to be done - it was only a matter of when. Imagine a donut with a 5-6 inch diameter, stuffed with brownie batter and topped with a combination of peanut butter, peanut butter chips, chocolate chips, and some sort of peanut-buttery glaze. Sounds like breakfast, right? I will admit, the two bites I ate were delicious and surprisingly, didn't send me straight into a diabetic coma.

We headed out shortly thereafter and stopped for lunch in Houston at Gatlin's BBQ, where the barbeque far outdid the stuff of the BBQ Heaven truck the night before. Another three meat plate of brisket, pulled pork and ribs and we left satisfied. From there, we drove and drove and drove. Oh, and I kicked Joe's ass at our favourite road game: scanning the radio stations and racing to identify the artist of every English-language, non-country song. Just an observation: there is an astonishing quantity of Christian radio between Texas and New Orleans. Also, Joe's ability to immediately identify God rock is impressive. Some of it is very deceptive.

Now I must depart, as it's time to stroll down to Cafe Dumond for breakfast. Then we'll tour the French Quarter before we catch a street car to the Garden District where I plan to wander the streets and explore the cemeteries for hours. I apologize for the shortage of pics with this post, but I promise there will be many more to come after today. I also have donut video to edit whenever I find the time.

Just for good measure

I've been dreaming about G'Raj Mahal since the first time I saw it on Eat St. a while back. I'm currently suffering some distress because I want to eat there SO bad, but we only have one day in Austin and I suspect this would interfere with my TX BBQ dinner plans. What do you think? Is it humanly possible to do Torchy's Tacos, BBQ brisket and super-spicy Goan Indian food all in a single day?

So much street food, so little time

As our goal for this trip, we're setting out to eat as much street food as we possibly can in eight days. Now, some of the places we'll be stopping probably don't have much to offer in terms of street food, but I've been assured that Austin, TX is street food heaven. I've been scouring the interwebs looking up potential places to eat, but I think we've decided to leave it up to fate and see what we stumble upon. That said, there is one exception to this rule and that is Torchy's Tacos - Joe's one and only street food must in Austin. So, to whet your appetite for what's to come (and to inform those of you who still seem to think that 'street food' means hot dog stands), here's a little preview of Torchy's courtesy of VendrTV.

12 states, 8 days and as much food as we can possibly eat.

So, here we are in May and my thesis defense is just around the corner. After being buried in work for the last few months, I'm taking a vacation. And it has occurred to me that this is a great excuse to get my blog and up and running again.

In case you're wondering
who Joe is.

My upcoming road trip has been mentioned a couple times on FB, eliciting (occasionally rude) questions. (Yes, Julie Pieterse, I'm talking about you!) So, here is the much-anticipated explanation: I'm headed south. Not surprising, since south is usually my direction of choice, but this time I'm going to the south. Joe and I have eight days to drive from California to Pennsylvania, in what is going to be a  fast-paced, tightly-planned, self-control-free street food tour of the southern United States.

At this point, we've sketched out our route, made a few minor and a few major adjustments, and now we're just ironing out the details. I've provided a map for your viewing pleasure (see below). I'll be flying into Arizona for a little Oaxaca reunion before we burn straight through to Austin, TX. After a full day of BBQ and street food in Austin, we'll head to New Orleans for another full day to be spent wandering the streets and indulging in the culinary delights of The Big Easy. Then it's off to Atlanta (with a pit stop in Montgomery, AL for a couple key land marks), where our goals involve fried chicken and MLK. After a night in Durham, NC, enjoying what I've been assured will the best of company, we'll head north through Virginia to arrive in the bustling metropolis of Hershey, Pennsylvania - just in time to (hopefully) get Joe settled into some new digs.

So, that's where things stand for now and we're pretty happy with the plan. Right now I am happily taking suggestions for driving tunes and food we should eat along the way. You can expect sporadic blog posts between now and June 2nd (when I leave for AZ), and after that I've made it my goal to post daily updates. Feel free to harass me relentlessly if I fail to do so.

View Hershey Road Trip in a larger map